30 higher-bracket people in Hollywood. Some had undoubtedly arrived at their conclusions by deep-dish thinking; oth- ers were probably influenced by rUlnors that heads attached to erinine torsos would COlne off first. Birdwell O.K.'d the erinine because the situation had changed and heads would continue to be worn on the Inost expensive shoul- ders. AS a publicity man, Birdwell is not Il. a word painter like Richard Maney, who gets his propaganda into ,print by sheer power of style, or a phraseinaker lIke Charles Washburn, who coined "piatinuin blonde" for Jean Harlow. Birdwell Inay be excelled in 1 After a fourth, he had the sale copy of the prisoner's last letter. Froin then on he was authorized to hang around the newspaper office all he wanted to, but the newspaper was too dignified to have a twel ve-year-old reporter on its staff. Birdwell obtained his inside knowledge of the hangings by behind-the-scenes Inanipulations differing very little froin his later operations. He had instinctively Inade the jail his headquarters because of a craving to be where things were happening. He becaine a volunteer er- rand boy for the jailers and a letter writer for illiterate prisoners. He had a fine journalistic gift for passing un- noticed. He got in to hospital operating rOOlns and secret political conferences because of his faculty of seeining to belong wherever he was. Once, when his charter-ineinber air failed to gain him adinission to an Í1nportant hanging, he got in by saying he was the sheriff's only son. With crÍ1ninals he was auld lang syne at.first sight. He had no trouble inducing friends about to be hanged to oblige hin1 hy carrying a rabbit's foot, or Inanufacturing SaIne other news angle. Once Birdwell passed un- noticed into the prison chapel with a colored congregation which was holding final services for one of its Ineinbers. The prison authorities allowed the folks to bring in dozens of water- Inelons out of the traditional re- spect for a condeinned Inan' s last wish. As the visitors started to pray, the prisoner weighed a 111elon in his hands, estÍ1nated the distance to the concrete floor, and dropped the Inelon in such a way that it broke open and the heart popped into his hands. As the praying, hYlnning, preach- . d h . f " A " lng, an s outIng 0 Inen went on, the prisoner kept drop- ping Inelons, always with such accuracy that he was able to catch the heart in Inid-air. He ate the centres, paying no at- ten tion to the sides. As the last melon and last hYlnn were çon- eluded, a keeper led the prisoner away. Birdwell wrote up the scene and had the satisfaction of seeing his work in print, al- though considerably rewritten. But he still wasn't hired by the paper. One day Birdwell bought a meal for a hungry stranger, lis- tened to his life story, and wrote one departInent or t:lnother by suIne of his able cOlnpetitors in N ew York and Hollywood. It is doubtful that anyone is ahead of hÍ1n in fertility of invention. He was born with the gift and started to de- velop it early in life. At the age of twelve, in Dallas, he began to create incidents and tie thein up to news events in or- der to break into journalism. Birdwell tried to interest the editors of Dallas , newspapers in his account of a hanging. He failed. They took Inore inter st in his account of a second hanging be- cause he had inside inforination that the condeinned Inan had carried -a rabbit's foot with hÎ1n to the gallows. ...t\fter a third hanging, Bird well came in with the exact text of the prisoner's last words. - /) ? 5 "--/' ,..--- 2 A ' f) :, , i'-rJ Ð , ,:) ;... L tl. "., ,.: ' ,' , ": - ,:',:' , ./ , :;':::: -- ":. . :t:,' -;; , ':::.- "'-/ / . .. . - . . . .--- -- , , :;:7, ,i , :\::,., " "'::,: ;--.:: Þ,. - .. I: . '. .......... . ,..'".. '" y) ,-- . 'Iñ ".... ,.. --- r'" ".,',.., Ý<, /!." I . ', ..., c;... ( ) '';::,.'''1' 6/ \ ,.,.-,,=---::;:-. :::::< /,:f /" '.::: \ f7 '" y-:=:.- .{ ^: -=- '. 4 - 6 ..-- --- , 1""'-:::, ð